Wednesday, October 31, 2012

On June 30, 2011, 16-year-old T.J. Harris Jr. collapsed on his friend’s front porch. He laid there with two bullets lodged in his chest, taking his last breaths as he slipped out of consciousness. Police came, followed promptly by an ambulance. But T.J. couldn’t hang on.

In the days after T.J. was killed in a shooting on Wilmington’s North Fifth Avenue, a makeshift memorial took shape in the grassy median across the street from his friend’s porch. T.J.’s mother, Teresa Walker, often visits to lay fresh flowers, replace deflated balloons and reminisce about a young life cut short.

“At first I feel sad,” she said. “But then I think about all the good times me and him had together.”

Street shrines have become a sadly familiar sight across the city as bereaved families and friends erect homemade monuments atop curbs, in parks and along roadsides to commemorate loved ones lost. People are probably more familiar with roadside memorials to traffic accident victims. But in urban areas like Wilmington, the long-running tradition has expanded to honor those slain in violence. In that sense, their all-too-common presence serves to manifest the consequences of crime.

What you've seen in the past dozen years is the journalistic equivalent of the Protestant Reformation of the Catholic Church, and, try as it might, the ecclesiastics of the old religion of information can't hold back the tide of heretics preaching a new creed, unbeholden to the cult of Ss. Murrow, Cronkite and Chancellor.

And even though the Catholic Church eventually reformed itself and was stronger for having done so, the break was permanent, the scales had fallen from the eyes of too many to go back to the old way. And the world, I think, is better for it. And after all, doesn't the Left view itself as the champion of diversity? Not when that diversity includes diversity of thought.

Donning survival suits and boarding life boats, the crew of a tall ship in distress off North Carolina's Outer Banks abandoned the vessel as Hurricane Sandy swirled toward the East Coast, the Coast Guard said early Monday.

The 17 people aboard the HMS Bounty got into two 25-foot lifeboats with canopies, wearing survival suits and life jackets, Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class David Weydert in Portsmouth, Va., said.

The Coast Guard was trying to determine whether to use cutters or helicopters to rescue the crew, based on the current ocean conditions, Weydert said. Winds of 40 mph and 18-foot seas were reported at the ship, about 90 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C.

Click the link to read the rest. Not for nothing is the area off the North Carolina Outer Banks called "the Graveyard of the Atlantic."

A deer smashed through the door of a Rock Hill restaurant early Saturday morning, according to Rock Hill police.

Officers responded to the Dragon Express restaurant – located on Cherry Road directly across the street from Winthrop University – after 2 a.m. to find the deer running around the dining room, said Lt. Marc Kitts of the Rock Hill Police Department.

A Caldwell County tanning salon owner and her boyfriend were arrested Thursday in connection with cocaine trafficking.

The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office drug unit arrested Jennifer Denise Robinson, 32, and Aaron Lateff Pearson, also known as “Toog,” 38, without incident at the Granite Falls salon, called JennaDollzz Tanning.

They lived in the same home in Lenoir and were charged with trafficking cocaine and maintaining a dwelling to keep drugs, according to a press release from the Sheriff’s Office.

Click the link to check out the eyebrows on the chick. Mr. Spock or Dr. McCoy couldn't get an eyebrow higher than that girl has hers painted on.

Police arrested a mother and son in connection with a bank robbery in University City Friday night.

Officers responded to a robbery call at the First Citizens Bank in the 6700 block of N. Tryon Street about 6 p.m., according to a release from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

En route, officers saw Carlos Lamonte Simpson, 21, and Pamela Simpson, 48, at a bus stop near the bank, the release said. One officer noticed the two had dye on their clothing, which was from an exploded dye pack.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

British soldiers and military dogs gathered at a London army barracks Thursday to honor a fallen hero with selfless courage, nerves of steel - and four legs.

Theo, a bomb-sniffing springer spaniel who died in Afghanistan on the day his soldier partner was killed, was posthumously honored with the Dickin Medal, Britain's highest award for bravery by animals.

Tasker, 26, died in a firefight with insurgents in March 2011, and Theo suffered a fatal seizure hours later. Tasker's mother, Jane Duffy, says the pair were inseparable. She's convinced Theo died of a broken heart.

The Dickin Medal has been given to dogs, pigeons, horses - - and a cat. Click the link to read the whole story.

It's a list of books recommended for Navy personnel of all ranks. Let's let CNO himself explain it:

There's some familiar names on the list, such as Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander, among others. It's meant for leisure time and there is no requirement to read any of them, but...

While nonreaders face no consequence, Jackson encourages leaders to praise those who do participate in their next evaluations.

So you know where that will probably lead.

For myself, it's no big deal; I've always been a reader, even read the tomes put out by the Naval Institute regularly during my active duty years. There's probably more than a few sailors who'd rather not have to deal with being "encouraged" to tackle the "essential 18" books on the list.

It's similar to what Muslims like to say: There is no compulsion in Islam.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Do you think that when Treebeard the Ent gets sexually excited he refers to it as getting a woody?

Likewise, when Treebeard has sexual relations with one of the Entwives, does he have to worry about splinters? Does she? If they go at it hot and heavy enough, would the friction cause them to catch fire?

He mainly discusses it in terms of Citizens United, but mentions Roe v. Wade in passing, also, and points up Anthony Kennedy's libertarian tendencies as likely to be missed. No mention at all of gun rights post-Heller.

A 14-year-old New Hanover High student was arrested Wednesday morning after throwing an aluminum mug out a third story window of the Market Street school, hitting another student on the head, according to an official.

New Hanover County Sheriff Sgt. Jerry Brewer said the mug struck a student on the ground level, causing a gash that needed six staples to close.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The Pentagon has given a partial explanation to a Guantanamo mystery: How the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks managed to dye his beard.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's bushy grey beard has been colored a rusty orange during court appearances. Spectators had assumed he used henna, which is used by some Muslims as a hair dye.

A Pentagon spokesman says Mohammed used "natural means," such as juice from berries that he receives in his meals. Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale said Tuesday that Mohammed did not receive any "outside" means to color his beard.

Over at Robert Langham's blog he mentions an encounter with a copperhead, which he let live, and I got to wondering: What's the attitude of my readership toward snakes, particularly venomous snakes? My own attitude is like Langham's, with the possible exception of encountering a venomous snake by surprise in close quarters, e.g., accidentally stepping on one and having it bite in self-defense.

So here's today's poll. I think I've covered most of the choices, with the exception of killing a snake to protect one's spouse/children; I think that choice would outweigh every other one on the poll, so I didn't include it by design. You can, of course, offer detailed reasons for/against in comments.

Under What Circumstances Would You Kill a Snake?

The only good snake is a dead snake.

I only kill venomous ones.

I only kill venomous ones on my property.

I'd only kill one that bit me, for identification purposes at hospital.

If you're not following Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller, you probably should be. Quality conservative news and views; and, if you look at the top of the main page, you'll see a heading titled Guns and Gear. That's right, The Daily Caller prominently features gun reviews and stories. For just one example, here is a review of the Savage Rascal, a .22 bolt-action youth rifle.

I'm at the point where I check the feed for The Daily Caller regularly. It's worth adding to your newsfeed or blogroll.

Some residents of Olde Towne Wynd in Leland enjoy sprucing up for the holidays with dazzling light displays, decorations and mood-setting music.

So does Dan DeBlasio.

The difference is that DeBlasio's favorite holiday comes in October, not December.

For DeBlasio, Halloween is his chance to outshine the neighbors.

As a visitor pauses to read the "Enter at Your Own Risk!" sign, DeBlasio or his cohort, Tom Nugent, rattles him with a hidden noisemaker. Even on an early October day, this year's plan is taking shape.

The gated graveyard is nearly finished, featuring a half-buried corpse among the graves of singer Bob Denver, pitchman Billy Mays and pop legend Michael Jackson. The young boy's underwear on Jackson's gravestone smacks of poor taste, but DeBlasio takes ridicule as easily as he shovels it – imagine his hesitation at asking a neighbor for a pair of his son's underwear.

Among all the famous names in the graveyard is one unfamiliar name: "Georgia Peters, 1940-2001." That's DeBlasio's mother-in-law, and it's not a tribute – she's actually still alive. There's also an undug grave with a shovel next to it – its headstone reads "YOU!!!"

Pic:

And, me being the priggish grammar Nazi that I am, I noticed that the sign in the pic has the word you're misspelled as your. Don't know if it's intentional or not, but this is North Carolina, so I'll say it's unintentional. (Later: he spelled too as to, also.)

Thursday, October 18, 2012

The cost of the recent DNC convention here in Charlotte is deeply in the hole:

How do you pay the bills when the party’s over and the guests have gone?

Democratic National Convention organizers are about to find out.

After struggling for more than a year to raise money – and ultimately coming up short – they face $10 million in debts and unpaid obligations, according to reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission.

“This is a difficult debt to retire,” said Viveca Novak, a spokeswoman for the Center for Responsive Politics. “If (President) Obama loses on Nov. 6, then very few people are going to want to give to this lingering debt from the convention.”

It brings to mind Groucho Marx's comment on alimony: It's like feeding hay to a dead horse.

I got to visit Victory in the early 1980's when I was in the US Navy, on a port visit to Portsmouth. I had photos of the ship with the US flag flying at the mainmast as a courtesy; those didn't follow me here to the US when my marriage broke up and property was divided. Wonderful old ship.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

GULFPORT -- Kevin Boone wanted to take his ninth-grade students from Salmen High in Slidell to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans last spring, but he realized they didn't know much about the war.

Boone, who lives in Gulfport, decided the students would get more out of the field trip if they knew what happened in World War II and the history behind it.

"I hated to bring the students there without them having any background," Boone said. "It was spring, and they were tired of testing, so we did a fun learning game, and they researched most of the events of the war."

He decided a board game, such as Monopoly with a WWII theme, would be the best way to get the students interested and help them remember the facts.

Boone searched the Internet for such a game but couldn't find one, so he and his students created their own. He had five classes, and each created a version. The classes played each other's games rather than taking a written test.

The field trip was a success, Boone said, and he felt his students got more out of the experience than if they hadn't studied WWII.

Now, six months later, Boone and his students will go to the museum for the unveiling of Monopoly: America's WWII: We're All in This Together.

Tonight's Presidential debate is a "town hall"-style debate, with "normal Americans" asking questions of Obama and Romney. How were the "normal Americans" picked? That's the first way you could rig the debate.

The second way that the debate could be rigged is that, although the "normal Americans" get to ask the questions, the questions are pre-screened and the moderator (Candy Crowley, Liberal Journalist) gets to choose which questions get asked. Thus it's likely that there will be plenty of questions that embarrass Governor Romney (or try to) and few that embarrass President Obama.

The third way the debate could be rigged is that Liberal CNN Journalist Candy Crowley gets to ask the follow-up questions to those made by the "normal Americans." Thus, if one of the questions inadvertently embarrasses President Obama, Crowley will be able to rescue him by asking a penetrating follow-up to Governor Romney.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Sunday's season premiere of The Walking Dead apparently picks up Rick & Co. several weeks (or perhaps even longer) after the Season 2 finale. Hershel has grown a beard, the entire group are now zombie-killing machines, and have even acquired suppressors for several of their guns. But apparently, even with several road-worthy vehicles, they couldn't find their way out of the general area that they were in at the end of Season 2 (all the roads are choked off/blocked?)

Meanwhile, we see Michonne (who still hasn't been formally introduced to the audience) caring for Andrea, who apparently has pneumonia. Lots of unanswered questions there: where did Michonne learn to use that sword so efficiently? What's with the two armless zombies? It's as if we missed an episode in which all this stuff was explained.

And Rick is damn sure determined to keep Hershel around to deliver Lorie's baby, no matter what it takes, huh?

The election is not over, but it is starting to resemble October 29 or November 1 in 1980, when, after just one debate, the nation at last decided that it really did not like Jimmy Carter very much or what he had done, and discovered that Ronald Reagan was not the mad Dr. Strangelove/Jefferson Davis of the Carter summer television ads. Like Carter, Obama both has no wish to defend his record (who would?) and is just as petulant. In the next three weeks, he has only three hours left to save his presidency.

There are lots or reasons why various groups are tiring of Obama. It is not just the economy, but also all the untruths about the economy over the last four years that sounded like daily communiqués from the Ministry of Truth. Do we even remember the brilliant Obama economic A-team, chomping at the bit in December 2008 to get started to pull us into the good times — a Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner (remember, he was the “genius” who almost alone knew how high finance on Wall Street worked and so had to be exempted from cheating on his tax deductions), Christina Romer, Peter Orszag, and, later, Austan Goolsbee, who have now all come and gone.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

I'm feeling nostalgic for the late 1970's, thanks to Borepatch posting an old country favorite. So I'll offer another song from the same era, from a very similar singer, the late Johnny Duncan. This one features Janie Fricke, a legend in her own right, who got her start as a session singer and had several hits with Duncan. Here's one of their best, Stranger:

The Defense Department is developing a shelf-stable meat that tastes less like a Slim Jim and more like chicken, beef or pork.

DoD’s Combat Feeding Directorate and the Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center have teamed with an Augusta, Ga.,-based company to produce meat that can sit on a shelf for two or three years and still remain soft and juicy, with a consistency similar to deli cold cuts.

The process involves grinding up a base meat such as chicken, pork or beef (vegetables are being tested as well) and passing it slowly through a continuous osmotic dehydration processor, removing water from the meat by osmosis, drawing it out with a solution of sugar and salt.

The result is a product that presses out of the dehydration machine looking like a giant Fruit Roll Up.

There! You see? Which would you rather have, a Slim Jim or a Fruit Roll-Up? I know what I prefer.

The linked article is racially insensitive enough to have been written by...me.ROCK HILL A Lancaster man repeatedly threatened a police officer’s life after he was arrested for allegedly harassing his “baby mamma,” according to a Rock Hill police report.

The 41-year-old woman told police the man called her and threatened to come to her Rock Hill home and “bust out her windows” following an incident earlier in the evening.

When officers found the man walking down Anderson Road, the report states, he had “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his person. He was arrested and charged with public disorderly conduct.

On the way to jail, the report states, the man repeated yelled and threatened one of the officers, using numerous expletives.
“Wait ‘til...you take these handcuffs off of me...” the man said, according to the report. “Done it before, I’ll do it again...You can hit me with your Taser, I don’t give a ... about that. I’m gonna get you before it hit me, though.

[Suspect] faces 37 felony violations related to 23 breaking-and-entering cases, according to police. The burglaries started March 19, about four months after [suspect] got out of a state prison, and continued through Sept. 15, according to authorities.

Stealing. It's all he knows, all he's good at, apparently. And one of his previous busts apparently recognized this, as he was charged with being a habitual felon. Unfortunately, the sentence he received didn't reflect that fact.

Mich. Authorities say a blaze that displaced dozens of people from a southwest Michigan apartment complex may have been sparked by a resident trying to cook a squirrel with a propane torch.

Fire Chief Jim Kohsel tells MLive.com that the resident apparently planned to eat the animal and was burning off its fur on a third-floor deck at the building in Ottawa County's Holland Township when the fire broke out Wednesday. Flames spread to the roof. Kohsel says eight apartments are destroyed and others damaged.

Since this took place at an apartment complex and involved bizarre technique, I'm inclined to think that alcohol was probably involved, as well as a large dose of male stupidity.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

A man in UK is making a tidy sum with a factory to refurbish junk 2CV's and re-sell them, often back to France, their country of origin. A junked 2CV purchased from a junkyard for £300 can, when refurbished, sell for £11,000 or higher.

Good profit for a car that was often thought of as an ugly duckling. They were easy to maintain and cheap, though, making them the French equivalent of the Volkswagen Beetle, and popular for the same reason.

Here's a pic, if you're not familiar with them:

Click the link for more pics. They were easy to turn into small trucks, and I saw a lot of them in Spain when I lived there in the mid-1980's.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Coming home from work a few minutes ago, I heard a great offer on WBT radio from Pizza Hut: if you are in the audience at the Town Hall Debate between Mitt Romney and President Obama, and are called on, if you ask them "What topping to you prefer on your pizza: pepperoni or sausage?" Pizza Hut will give you free pizza for life.

Isn't that brilliant, in a manipulative American way? Instead of asking a substantive question, you whore yourself out for free stuff. And I'm sure that other companies will follow Pizza Hut's lead and try to horn in on the debate, also. You might not get a substantive question all night. It might go like this:

MIAMI -- The winner of a roach-eating contest in South Florida died shortly after downing dozens of the live bugs as well as worms, authorities said Monday.

About 30 contestants ate the insects during Friday night's contest at Ben Siegel Reptile Store in Deerfield Beach about 40 miles north of Miami. The grand prize was a python.

Edward Archbold, 32, of West Palm Beach became ill shortly after the contest ended and collapsed in front of the store, according to a Broward Sheriff's Office statement released Monday. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Authorities were waiting for results of an autopsy to determine a cause of death.

"Unless the roaches were contaminated with some bacteria or other pathogens, I don't think that cockroaches would be unsafe to eat," said Michael Adams, professor of entomology at the University of California at Riverside, who added that he has never heard of someone dying after consuming roaches. "Some people do have allergies to roaches," he said, "but there are no toxins in roaches or related insects."

Me? I think he died of shame after debasing himself in such a manner. I know I would.

That show would have been just a run-of-the-mill variety show were it not, frankly, for the presence of two people: Harvey Korman, who could not keep a straight face when he found something funny, and Tim Conway, the man who was the most skilled at making Harvey Korman (and, very often, the rest of the cast) break into uncontrollable laughter. This propensity of Conway's is best exemplified by his "elephant story," in which he breaks up Carol, Vicki Lawrence, Dick Van Dyke (and himself) before being topped by Vicki Lawrence in a brilliant riposte:

When you see the modern internet term "ROFL" (Rolling On Floor Laughing), this is a perfect example of what is meant.

...and his writings at National Review, the Derb is now writing regularly for Taki's Magazine, the outlet where he wrote the piece that got him fired from NR. You can read his six-month-out reflections on his notoriety here.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Scott Strother with S2 Concessions has partnered with the North Carolina Coastal Pines chapter of the Girl Scouts to offer the deep-fried Caramel deLites, or the cookie formerly known as Samoas. (The partnership marks the girl scouts' 100th anniversary.)

Strother admits he was inspired by a vendor at the Texas State Fair, who also introduced deep-fried Caramel deLites this year although Strother says his method is a different. Strother says he freezes the cookies for 24 hours, dips them in batter and briefly deep fries them. "It melts in your mouth," Strother reports.

The plague of gun violence in the U.S., it turns out, is not as widespread or as random as many gun control advocates would have us believe. Indeed, gun violence in America largely consists of black and Hispanic males shooting other black and Hispanic males. According to a study by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, based on data collected by the Center for Disease Control, 1.5 white Americans in 100,000 were shot and killed in 2007 — still higher than the Canadian rate of 0.6, but, given the population densities of the two nations, at least in the same ballpark. On the other hand, the rate for Hispanic Americans was an alarming 5.2 per 100,000 — more than three times the rate among whites Americans. The rate for African Americans was a grotesque 18.1 per 100,000, or roughly 12 times the rate among whites Americans. The rate for African-American males was an obscene 37.59 per 100,000.

Those are the victim rates. The ethnic disparities among gun homicide offenders mirror the disparities among victims. Though blacks make up less than 13% of the U.S. population, year after year they commit more than half of all gun homicides. The numbers for Hispanic offenders are harder to pin down since law enforcement agencies tend to group them with white offenders — perhaps to make the black-white contrast seem less stark. But given the high rate of Hispanic victimization, and the fact that more than half of all homicide victims in the U.S. are acquainted with their killers, it seems safe to conclude that Hispanic offenders also commit gun homicides at substantially elevated rates.

Recognizing the centrality of ethnicity to the problem of gun violence is just another way of saying, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” But it also underscores the gnarly politics of dealing with the issue. You likely could significantly reduce incidents of gun violence in the U.S., and save many black and Hispanic lives in the process, with mandatory sentencing. So, for example, if you’re convicted of using a gun to commit a crime, we could tack an extra five years onto the end of your sentence. If you discharge a gun while committing a crime, make it 15. If you shoot someone, make it 25. No exceptions. No plea bargains. No mercy.

If states began to adopt such sentencing guidelines, you likely would have a drastic reduction in gun homicides — not because violent criminals would necessarily be deterred, but because, once they’re caught and convicted, they’d be incarcerated for much longer periods. It would therefore be a boon to the overwhelming majority of blacks and Hispanics, who are law-abiding citizens. But it would also require building many more prisons and filling them with mostly black and Hispanic males — which means that most blacks and Hispanics would oppose the effort. So too would every left-of-center advocacy group that fancies itself a guardian of minority interests.

Oregon authorities know only two things for sure about the death of 70-year-old farmer Terry Vance Garner: He died Wednesday and his hogs ate most of him, according to news reports.

A relative found Garner's dentures and pieces of his body in the hog enclosure after Garner didn't return from feeding his 700-pound animals that morning on his farm in Riverton, near the coast, the Associated Press says.

How does a sane person, without great wealth that might provide exemption from all this cope? They tune out. They psychologically drop out, in the manner of ancient quietists in fourth-century BC at Athens (the apragmones in search of hysuchia), who learned that one cannot fight the mob, but only seek to escape it. I bump into and talk with these latter-day quietists quite often. They are generally happy folk but have developed a certain psychological protocol by which to survive. The quietist trusts more the ancient wisdom in hallowed texts that warns democracy implodes when the masses finally assume absolute control and vote themselves entitlements that even the shrinking rich can no longer sustain. So they don’t get in the way between the mob and their entitlements.

If the state idles farm land, puts drilling off limits, drives out business, the quietist accepts that those who do such things do them because they never affect the authors directly, and when in the future they do, they will cease and desist — and it will be mostly too late. He assumes that the whiners at the $4 a gallon gas pump never make the equation that there may be 30 billion barrels in untapped oil 150 miles away, right off the California shore. (Instead “they” rigged the prices). The quietist assumes that few connect the horrific highways with an incompetent state whose highest gasoline taxes in the nation have translated into some of the country’s worse roads, and to the drivers who customarily lose brush, limbs, and mattresses from their trucks, shutting down lanes for hours.

No matter – the quietist adjusts and drives at weird hours, as if he were some owl or nocturnal beast; it is not that hard to live a life pretty much opposite of what the majority does. There are plenty of quietists who can advise you. They are experts on how to navigate in a beautiful but otherwise insane state. Ask a tree-cutter, small garage owner, custom tractor driver, or self-employed tile-setter; they have all sorts of advice on how to survive: usually, however, they end with something like, “Of course, my kids should get a state job.” In 1960, rare state employees were noble folk, who were willing to make less for job security and a sense of public service; today they are lotto winners who hit the jackpot.

The quiet Californian assumes that each year a new regulation, a new tax, a new something will seek him out. I read the “state franchise tax board” print as I do the hate letters or emails I receive — incoherent, threatening. This year I got a letter from the state explaining that based on my income they “estimated” that I must have used the Internet to buy x-amount of things and therefore did not pay state sales taxes and therefore suggested that I should pay them around, say, $600.

So quietist Californians expect about every six months a new fee, dreamed up a government employee who is paranoid that the state retirement system is broke, and with it his pension. The state employee is now entrepreneurial: without x-traffic tickets written, without y-new fees dreamed up, salaries and benefits dry up. I touch my rural mailbox as if I do metal after skidding on a new carpet — a sort of static feeling of anxiety about what new state directive is inside.

About Me

What I'm Reading

JL Curtis: Gray Man - - Partners

Hitchens

The MSM

A newsroom comprised entirely of leftists/liberals is no more capable of ideological objectivity than an all-white newsroom would be of racial objectivity, or an all-male newsroom of gender objectivity.

FlickR

Captain Louis Renault

"Round Up the Usual Suspects."

The Drawn Cutlass Philosophy

Be as decent as you can. Don't believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect, and don't have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security, it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.

Ambrose Bierce

The Foe

When I am free to walk the streets of Mecca or Medina as the agnostic I am and receive nothing but curious glances, I will believe Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.

Sign On. You Know You Want To.

A Few Words From Some Founding Fathers

Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety

All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.

Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)

Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.

Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.

Bob's Addendum To Cooper's Rules

A Gun is not a Toy. Don't Play With It.

Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies

Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies: The best hush puppies are oblong shaped, rather like dog turds. The worst ones are spherical, like balls. The spherical ones are usually made from the recipe on a pre-packaged box of hush puppy mix.

Restaurant Ratings

My restaurant ratings, mostly intended for BBQ restaurants, will be on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. Unlike most reviewers, I don't intend to play games with the rating scale by introducing fractions such as "2 and 1/2" or "4 and 3/4," I've always considered that stupid and a signal that the reviewer is trying to avoid making an honest 1-5 judgment.

Here is the breakdown of the ratings:

1 out of 5: waste of time, crap, unable to finish eating; apathy by staff/ownership

2 out of 5: edible, but no effort to impress; staff/management going through motions; desultory.

3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management

On Self-Reliance

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."